It has been conventional for many years to provide boat lifts immediately adjacent docks, piers and the like to lift boats out of the water to effect temporary or relatively permanent storage, maintenance and minor service and/or repair. A platform, preferably provided with a custom hull support upon which a boat rests, is lifted and lowered through a winching system which includes steel cables wound upon winding reels or drums which are in turn secured to reel shafts journalled for rotation upon a relatively rigid mounting plate. The mounting plate also carries an electric motor which through a pair of pulleys and a pulley belt imparts rotation through a gear drive to a shaft of the winding reel. Two such boat lift motors and drive assemblies might be utilized for lifting the boat relative to water, each on the same side of the boat, one adjacent the bow and one adjacent the stern. By selectively energizing the electric motors, a boat resting upon the hull support or platform can be lifted and lowered for ingress/egress and storage/servicing purposes.
Such boat lift systems are highly advantageous since they protect boat hulls from damage which might be caused by storms, wave action and tides. Boat bottom cleaning and/or painting is minimized and, therefore, sluggish boat performance caused by fouled boat bottoms is markedly reduced. Obviously, trailer launching and loading is avoided and boat damage common thereto is likewise eliminated. Furthermore, the news of approaching storms and high winds no longer requires a trip to the marina or dock to check the lines of a conventionally moored floating boat. Thus, boat lift motor and drive systems and the associated boat lifts allow more time for boating in an enjoyable manner absent the inherent worries stemming from floating boat mooring.
Such conventional boat lift drive systems, unfortunately, are subject to corrosion and electrolysis because they are left unprotected from the elements. Water, particularly salt water, is extremely corrosive, but dirt and debris can create wear and premature parts failure. Electric motors are particularly adversely effected from exposure to the elements and an expected day of joyful boating can be cut short abruptly when a boater finds an electric lift motor has been burned out, and a part or all of an otherwise enjoyable day of boating is devoted to acquiring a new motor and effecting repair and replacement for subsequent boat outings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,508 issued on Sep. 22, 1998 and assigned to Norfolk Fabrication, Inc., the assignee herein, provides a novel housing which avoids problems associated with corrosion, electrolysis, dirt, debris and the like. However, the housing disclosed in the latter-identified patent requires the manufacture of two different back covers or rear covers, one for a "left-hand" installation and the other for a "right-hand" installation. Right-hand and left-hand installations are generally required when two boat lift motors and drive assemblies are utilized in a single boat lift with one such housing being located adjacent the bow, and the other housing being located adjacent the stern, as described earlier herein. When such an installation is viewed from water-side or boat-side, a generally vertically disposed wall which defines a chamber for partially receiving a drive pulley is located to the left of a drive shaft opening located in one rear cover, but such vertically disposed wall is located to the right of a like drive shaft opening of the other rear cover. This necessitates the manufacture of two different rear covers and problems associated therewith, including the obvious increase in costs involved in manufacturing two different parts, separate inventories therefor, and associated installation problems when an installer inadvertently takes two left-hand rear covers or two right-hand rear covers to the site of a boat lift installation when one of each is normally required.